We draw upon a rich vein of early cinema archive to tell the story of navvy poet, novelist, dramatist and screen writer Patrick MacGill. Born in 1889 into crushing poverty in Donegal in the west of Ireland, MacGill went on to become one of Ireland's most successful authors. His autobiographical novels paint a vibrant picture of the life of the navvy, the labourer and the whore, "the outcasts of a mighty industrial society". MacGill lived the life of a navvy in the Scottish highlands and in his writing fact and fiction, social report and love story mingle. We follow his rags to riches story as he fashions a career as a writer against the backdrop of a society in turmoil.